Communication devices such as smartphones, netbooks, gaming devices, PDAs, desktop computers, and laptop computers are now ubiquitous. And the capabilities of these communication devices have developed to a level that enables these communication devices to intercommunicate in a peer-to-peer manner.
For example, peer-to-peer communication is now used in connection with gaming (e.g., multi-player gaming), social networking (e.g., users may exchange messages), groupware applications (e.g., information may be synchronized and shared among ad-hoc groups without an external network), proximity based services (information may be broadcast to communication devices when within close proximity), and media entertainment (e.g., remote control and game control).
The protocols that are utilized to communicate data between communication devices typically include a relatively large message header that contains multiple human-readable strings. When transmitting a small payload, for example the XY coordinates of a player in a multiplayer game, the message header (rather than the payload) dictates the minimum size of the data packet. For any protocol, but especially wireless protocols (e.g., Bluetooth), the minimum data packet size can have a large impact on the performance of the network; thus a user's experience may be adversely affected by these message headers.
As a consequence, the existing peer-to-peer communication techniques are often less than desirable and will almost certainly be unsatisfactory in the future.